11From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 5–7 May 1779 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 8th of Feby arrivd safe by Colo. Mead abt the 10th of Apl —It conveyed to me a two fold pleasure; 1st to hear that you were ready to obey the call of your Country in a representatn of it and 2dly that yo. cd do it with more ease & convenience to your Affairs than formerly. If my time would permit, and it was proper & safe by the Post to go into a free discussion of the...
12From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 25 October 1779 (Washington Papers)
Letters of a private nature & for the mere purposes of friendly intercourse are, with me, the production of too much haste to allow time (generally speaking) to take, or make fair copies of them —and my memory (unfortunately for me) is of too defective a frame to furnish the periods at which they were written—But I am much mistaken if I have not, since I came to the prest Incampmt, wrote you a...
13To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 6–10 May 1780 (Washington Papers)
I have not had the pleasure of a line from you since your favor in Novr last, which leads me to conclude that my several letters from wmsburg in that month and the succeeding one never reach’d you, tho’ they were deliver’d to the post master by my own servant; since that period nothing has come to my knowledge till now worthy your notice, or I should most certainly have communicated it. I have...
14To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 16 June 1780 (Washington Papers)
I have long seen with the deepest concern the situation of america and it is not a little increased by that you were so obliging as to give me of the army, I have supposed that matters were in a bad way but my imagination never reach’d the truth; every man here, I mean in the assembly, seems most heartily disposed to use every exertion for the common cause, but indeed my Dear friend we are so...
15To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 16-c.20 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
I arrived at this place five days ago, sent by our Assembly to make application to congress for immediate assistance in men, arms, ammunition cloathing, and was also directed to wait on You on the same subjects; on Wednesday last I laid before a Committee of that body the business I had in charge as fully as it was in my power to do without answers to letters I had written to the Governor of...
16To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 25 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
I wrote you on the sixteenth a letter on the business I was sent on but supposing you were gone from Camp I did not send it on till now, which will make my appology for the Delay —Cornwallis is advancing fast into our Country. a letter from Gen. Green tells us he was retiring before him not being strong enough to fight him tho’ he is only about 2500 Strong; Green has passed the Stanton where I...
17To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 28 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
The Inclosed letters for Mr Carter the unworthy Son of a very worthy Father I must beg in his name and my own may be sent with a flagg to New-York as soon as possible, as he must stand in the greatest need of assistance, he fell into the hands of the Enemy in a stupid drunken ⟨fro⟩lick, I hope the accident may bring him to his senses, if it do[e]s not nothing will, I am extremely glad to hear...
18To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 8 January 1784 (Washington Papers)
I congratulate you my dear sir on your safe return to your native country and to that domestic ease and happiness you have so long earnestly wish’d for. Your disinterested virtue and patriotism have raised you to a height of glory which no human being can exceed, and stamp’d a value on your character superior if possible to the laurels you have gaind in the field, and the glorious independence...
19From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 18 January 1784 (Washington Papers)
I have just had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 8th—for the friendly & affectionate terms in which you have welcomed my return to this Country & to private life; & for the favourable light in which you are pleased to consider, & express your sense of my past services, you have my warmest & most grateful acknowledgments. That the prospect before us is, as you justly observe, fair,...
20To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 3 April 1784 (Washington Papers)
The enclosed letter from the clerk of the H. Delegates will inform you that the marquess’s thanks to the assembly have been presented. The resolution directing the Bust was order’d to be carried into execution by the commercial agent who was soon after dismiss’d from office, it never came to my hands till I sent for it yesterday, I will endeavour to have it comply’d with tho’ like other...
21From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 14 June 1784 (Washington Papers)
Long as the enclosed letter & petition appear to have been written, they never came to my hands until thursday last; the latter, altho’ called a copy, having the marks of an original paper; another copy accompanying it, inducing a belief that it is so, I delay not a moment to hand it forward. My being perfectly ignorant of the laws of the Commonwealth, & unacquainted, if such confiscations...
22To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 2 July 1784 (Washington Papers)
The great impositions that have been practiced on the country in the settlement of the depreciation accts of the soldiers, and the number of forged certificates of service that have been produced to the auditors and warrants obtain’d on them induced me to request the attention of the assembly to the subject; in consequence of which they have directed a revision of them, and in order to a full...
23From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 22 July 1784 (Washington Papers)
I have had the honor to receive your favor of the 2d—What you have asked of the Secretary at War, if obtained, is all I conceive essential to illucidate the accounts of the old & present impositions on the public—the rolls in the pay office might serve as checks to those of the Musters; but where all these are to be met with, I know not, as the Troops of Virginia were, by order of Congress,...
24To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 17 September 1784 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: from Benjamin Harrison, 17 Sept. 1784. On 10 Oct. GW wrote Harrison : “I had the pleasure to receive your favor of the 17th ulto.”
25From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 10 October 1784 (Washington Papers)
GW’s letter to Governor Harrison marks his return to public life as the leader of a movement to form a public company for improving the navigation of the upper Potomac and linking it with the waters of the Ohio. He first became deeply involved in schemes for opening up the Potomac in the early 1770s (see particularly the source note and its references in Thomas Johnson to GW, 18 June 1770 )....
26To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 13 November 1784 (Washington Papers)
I was in great hopes of seeing you here before this that I might have acknowledged the rect of your favor of the 10th of last month in person, and have told you how much I approve your plan for opening the navigation of the western waters. The letter was so much more explicit than I could be that I took the liberty to lay it before the assembly, who appear so impress’d with the utility of the...
27To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 6 January 1785 (Washington Papers)
It gives me great pleasure to inform that the assembly yesterday without a discenting voice complimented you with fifty shares in the potowmack company and one hundred in the James River company. of which I give you this early notice to stop your subscribing on your own account. As this compliment is intended by your country in commemoration of your assiduous ⟨cares⟩ to promote her interest I...
28From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 22 January 1785 (Washington Papers)
It is not easy for me to decide by which my mind was most affected upon the receipt of your letter of the 6th inst.—surprize or gratitude: both were greater than I have words to express. The attention & good wishes which the Assembly have evidenced by their act for vesting in me 150 shares in the navigation of each of the rivers Potomac & James, is more than mere compliment—there is an...
29To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 8 February 1785 (Washington Papers)
Your esteem’d favor of the 22d of last month reached me but a few days ago. Letters by post are some time geting to me, owing to the distance I am from the post road. I was fully aware of the difficulties the compliment made you by the assembly would lay you under, and assure you that the love and friendship I entertain for you, my earnest wishes that you might still support that noble...
30To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 7 December 1785 (Washington Papers)
I have the pleasure to enclose to you a copy of the act of assembly, pass’d in consequence of your letter to the Governor, which I hope will meet your entire approbation. your conduct on this occasion will add new lustre to your character and fully prove, if there was a doubt remaining in the melevolent hearts of any, that all your actions have been dictated by the pure motives of virtue and a...
31From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 18 December 1785 (Washington Papers)
I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 7th inst: enclosing an Act of the General Assembly, which passed at my request. This new proof of the confidence repos’d in me by my Country, lays me under additional obligations to it; and I am equally sensible of its favors, and the polite & friendly wishes with which you accompanied the act. If the etiquette of business makes it necessary...
32From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 24 September 1787 (Washington Papers)
In the first moments after my return I take the liberty of sending you a copy of the Constitution which the Fœderal Convention has submitted to the People of these States. I accompany it with no observations—your own Judgment will at once descover the good, and the exceptionable parts of it. and your experience of the difficulty’s which have ever arisen when attempts have been made to...
33To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 4 October 1787 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 28th Ulto got to me two days ago: I am particularly oblig’d to you for this additional mark of your friendship, and attention, than which, there are very few things indeed, that can be more acceptable: I feel my self deeply interested in every thing that you have had a hand in, or that comes from you, and am so well assured of the solidity of your judgment, and the rectitude...
34To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 26 February 1789 (Washington Papers)
It is long since I had the pleasure of any of your favors; which I hope does not proceed, from any alteration in your friendship for me; as I am not conscious of any cause that could produce such an alteration, in a breast so perfectly liberal, as I know yours to be. That we have differ’d in sentiments is true; yet as that difference arose from the same pure motives in both of us; that is,...
35From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 9 March 1789 (Washington Papers)
My friendship is not in the least lessened by the difference which has taken place in our political sentiments; nor is my regard for you diminished by the part you have acted. Men’s minds are as varient as their faces, and, where the motives to their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter: for both being the...
36To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 3 April 1789 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 9th ulto did not reach me till yesterday, the postmaster having by mistake, sent it to the Williamsburg office. The sentiments you express, and the motives you assign, for taking on you the administration of the American government, I am sure proceed from the heart; and indeed they are such as I knew could alone govern you. If we could always be in such hands, my fears would...
37To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 8 February 1782 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 10th ulto did not get to hand till a day or two ago, stopped I suppose by the way, by the severe weather, The Letter from the Officers ordered to march for Carolina (to Colo. Febiger ) was laid before the Assembly at their last setting, and every relief given to them that it was in their power to give. They seemed so sensible of this, that I had no doubt of their marching...
38To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 15 February 1782 (Washington Papers)
My sincerest thanks to you for your friendly congratulations on my promotion to the Government; indeed my Friend if you knew my true situation and that of this Country you would rather condole with me. When I accepted the appointment I knew I had innumerable difficulties to encounter, yet I undertook the task with a hope of surmounting them, not with a view of serving myself, for there is...
39From George Washington to Benjamin Harrison, 10 July 1782 (Washington Papers)
handing me the Letters herewith inclosed (amongst others) without apprizing me of the direction of them, I opened one of yours before I discovered the mistake—I offer this as an appology to you for the Seal coming to you broken. With great esteem & Regard I am Dr Sir Yr Most Obedt & Affect Serv. Privately owned.
40To George Washington from Benjamin Harrison, 11 July 1782 (Washington Papers)
I have the pleasure to inform you that the Assembly of this State has pass’d an act for raising three thousand men, which I think can not fail producing them; it gives a bounty of twelve pound specie to the recruit and forty shillings to the recruiting officer for each Man he enlists, the country is laid of into 3000 districts, each of which is to produce a man or the above sum of fourteen...